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So I was rooting around Careers, trying to discover what it exactly was.

I saw the invite-only thingy, but found out that you could get one via GitHub. Fully expecting to have it declined, I try the GitHub option. And, surprisingly, I get an account{*}.

I'm not that active on GitHub (Technically, I'm not even a programmer)--I created an account just recently, and most of my commits are minor changes. I do participate in a collaborative project, but I've just made a small commit to it (it recently shifted to Git, so my previous commits aren't there).

So, I'd like to ask: What are the rough requirements for an account via GitHub? (Rough since it's probably all hush-hush due to gaming)

Also, shouldn't they be made stricter? If a guy like me can get in, anyone can ;-)

Just for the record, my GitHub profile is: https://github.com/Manishearth .

*Now that I have one, I'd like to keep it, thank you very much :)

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  • 5
    By the upvotes, I see that everybody agrees with me that I don't deserve an account ;-)
    – Manishearth
    May 7, 2012 at 8:50
  • 8
    We're just persuaded (or scared to death) by the argument that "If a guy like me can get in, anyone can"
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    May 7, 2012 at 9:05
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    And there was me feeling proud of my unexpected invite.
    – vascowhite
    May 7, 2012 at 10:02
  • I have a GitHub account, but I have never received any.
    – UNNI
    May 7, 2012 at 10:20
  • @UNNI: I didn't get an invite, I just went to the careers page and tried to sign up and clicked the github option. There was a GitHub option. Additionally, there is some requirement--just an account doesn't suffice. I'm saying that the requirement is probably too low.
    – Manishearth
    May 7, 2012 at 10:31
  • @Manishearth, I think to get listed either you have good reputation here or have a github project.Even if a persons reputation is very low and has a GitHub project, I think he has equal chances.
    – UNNI
    May 7, 2012 at 10:35
  • @UNNI You either have to get an invite (others can invite you, or I think SE can invite you if you have enough rep.) This is a human mediated process. The GitHub thing seems to be instantaneous(if you have a reasonably active project) , and unrelated to rep. In fact, it is explicitly listed that even if you have low rep, you still have very good chances of getting a job via Careers.
    – Manishearth
    May 7, 2012 at 10:49
  • @Manishearth,you are right.Try to set up a project in Github and see the changes.:)
    – UNNI
    May 7, 2012 at 10:52

1 Answer 1

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We're working on a change that will raise the bar here, but I wanted to clarify that the goal is "demonstrate that you're a programmer". It's not "demonstrate that you are an extra super awesome programmer" -- that's what your profile is for, and ultimately employers will be the judge of that.

If I were reviewing your GitHub by hand, I'd probably give you an invite anyway based on it: it's real code that you wrote and committed. That's enough to put you in the top 0.001% of people on the internet who might try to create a profile.

With that said, we did realize that we can and should take followers / watchers into account, since that's an implicit peer endorsement of your code.

[update] We adjusted the algorithm to increase the requirements just a bit.

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  • Why would an employer pay to have access to "programmers"? They already have that. "good programmers" is, IMHO, what you should be aiming for. But the watchers/etc sounds like a great way to do that filtering :)
    – Manishearth
    May 11, 2012 at 17:22
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    @Tim "Good" means different things to different people, and ends up being more of a matching problem with companies. Trust me, we're spending a lot of time thinking about that as well and making sure that employers see the best matches first.
    – David Fullerton
    May 11, 2012 at 17:28

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